


How the Day Sounds

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Series: Kings of Nowhere [16]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe- GTA V, Fake AH Crew, Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Pre-Fake AH Crew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 21:31:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13579326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: The one where Ryan hears music all the goddamned time.





	How the Day Sounds

**Author's Note:**

> For Anon who asked for platonic soulmates. :D?

It's a thing, he's been told. Rare and precious and utterly infuriating because he's worked with people who have a soulmate. Someone who can sing a snatch of a song under their breath on the other side of the world and their soulmate will hear it perfectly clearly, get this stupid look on their face because their soulmate's singing a commercial jingle.

Ryan isn't jealous or anything like that of the people who have one, God no.

He's seen how it fucks with people, drives them mad trying to track down the person on the other end of their connection just to meet them. Knows it doesn't always work out the way the movies say it should because real life doesn't work like that. 

Knows that having a soulmate doesn't automatically give you the happily ever after you think you've earned no matter what you've done to get there. Doesn't mean you won't bankrupt yourself or lose everything you should have cared about to find someone who's managed to get by in life just fine without them around.

He's not jealous no, that's been burned out of him a long time ago after seeing what can happen to people who go chasing after some impossible dream.

But Ryan, well.

He's learns to recognize the difference between getting a song stuck in his head because his brain hates him and when his alleged soulmate is off somewhere singing a song.

He learns, over time, to be able to keep from singing, to fight the song down to a hum, and from there to the confines of his mind. 

Pretends it's just a coincidence that he happens to have a certain song stuck in his head at the oddest moment even when he's never heard it in his life. When the lyrics are all wrong and make no damned sense, whoever his soulmate is someone who takes random words and forcing them into whatever tune they have closest to hand, just because.

There are still moments when he's not expecting it to happen, and it throws him off for a moment. Has him pausing to consider the jumbled mess masquerading as a song.

There's been more than one instance where Ryan's stalking some poor bastard who made a very ill-advised mistake that ended with the Vagabond being paid to take care of things. Down to the part where it's a matter of picking his moment, letting the guy realize why hes about to die because that's why people go to Ryan, after all. Want to let their chosen target know just how badly they fucked up if the Vagabond's come for them.

Other times it's all he has to keep him going, anger and annoyance at the way whoever is on the other end of his connection cannot seem to be able to just do a browser search for song lyrics. Gets everything wrong, and keeps his mind from running in manic circles when he can't sleep. 

Mangled songs he actually likes poking at him insistently when he's bleeding out in a dirty little alley after a job gone wrong long enough for him to call someone he trusts for help. Have him grimly holding on, forming half-assed plans to actually find this idiot and give them a firm talking to. Sit them down and explain that _no_ , that's not how the song goes.

Ryan learns to live with all of that, and maybe there are times when he can't sleep and there's some stupid song he's never heard in his head. Seriously doubts the lyrics he's hearing are in any way accurate, but likes the way they sound because his defenses are down and no one's there to see what the Vagabond is in these kind of moments.

Thinks about turning his laptop on and searching for whoever keeps getting the wrong lyrics stuck in his head. Make it so that when Ryan actually does hear the song somewhere with the right lyrics, it feels wrong to him.

But he doesn't, because people like him never get their happy ending,and with something like this it's never a guarantee that things will work out anyway.

Good enough, to have some bit of a song in his head where no one else can hear. Look at him and wonder how the hell a monster like that managed to deserve a soulmate.

========

The problem is, Ryan ends up working with the Fakes. Gets approached by Ramsey when he hears about the guy in the mask who's terrifyingly good at his job.

He meets the others, people he's heard about in passing over the years. 

Jack who can fly just about anything he can get his hands on and is instrumental in making sure things run smoothly – or as smoothly as things can go in this business. Michael, who's sometimes goes by Mogar, and isn't nearly as volatile as the rumors says he is. The crew's hacker Gavin, who is just as comfortable behind the scope of a sniper rifle as he is cracking some security system or another. Jeremy, new addition to the crew who has appalling fashion sense and will do the worst things with a smile on his face.

There are others, people Geoff fondly refers to as their support team. People who work behind the scenes to make sure the Fake AH Crew stays on top in Los Santos, each one more terrifying than the last.

It takes a while for Ryan to realize this won't be a contractual kind of thing for him, not when he likes these assholes. Enjoys working with them, seeing what crazy ideas for heists they'll come up with next. Appreciates the fact they have morals, ethics, lines they won't cross no matter what.

Maybe they seem to realize that, or they just stop trying to make a good impression on him, because they start singing. Throw anything resembling radio discipline away and just say the hell with it.

All the damn time, and the lyrics are always wrong and none of them seem to know who started it.

Who the first person was to start singing one song or other only to veer off into singing about their current situation. Some annoying asshole who's deviating from their patrol route because they heard a kitten meowing or a red light taking longer than usual. The guy chasing them down an alley armed with a shotgun when they're out of ammo and about to die and Ryan is hauling ass to get to them in time.

It's confusing as all hell because – and this is the thing the movies never tell you – that soulmate singing in your head? 

Sometimes you ever really hear their voice.

Sometimes it's just your brain taking whatever song they're singing and filtering it back to you, which is why it took Ryan so long to realize he had a soulmate.

Soulmates?

There hadn't been the oh-so-convenient old cliché of hearing the singing in his head and hearing the voice that belonged to his soulmate. No way to hear it in the crowd and instantly recognize the person it belonged to, pushing through the throng of strangers to get to them.

No.

What he gets is humming a song under his breath during a setup for a heist with Michael and getting a double-take for his trouble. Michael sliding him a narrow-eyed look because it's the tune from a commercial jingle that's never aired in America.

“Fuck,” Michael groans. “He get you with that shit?”

Ryan blinks, looking to Michael in confusion. “What?”

“Gavin,” Michael says, long-suffering but still fond under it all. “Fucker's always singing these stupid songs.”

He gets Geoff walking around the penthouse late at night half-asleep going for a drink of water and singing nonsense to himself. Words Ryan knows because he's heard them before, loud and unexpected and too, too familiar.

He gets Jack singing to himself while he goes over the plans for his part in the heist, spinning the song into a new direction as he works.

Michael joining in on the comms when someone starts humming or whistling, laughter in his voice. Jeremy driving like a madman while Ryan hangs out the window, assault rifle in his hands and grinning hard at the ridiculous words that reach him as they whip through traffic.

He gets Lindsay singing along to a song playing on the radio when he goes down to hear out some new madness she's plotting. Trevor and the others joining in seamlessly without looking up from their own work.

He gets bits and pieces of songs from all of them, lyrics all wrong and nonsensical and somehow perfect.


End file.
